Today I got to wondering about how politeness is used in the Japanese translation of the Bible. If anyone is familiar with it, how is it treated? What level of formality is used in the text, and do persons that are quoted use 警護 when addressing others as they would in Japanese society? If so, which people use what kind of language, generally speaking?

I haven't seen a Japanese bible, but I think you meant 敬語, as I don't see much sense in using 警護 when addressing others. I mean, why insert these extra characters into the story? Do they need extra protection?

Sunken wrote:Today I got to wondering about how politeness is used in the Japanese translation of the Bible. If anyone is familiar with it, how is it treated? What level of formality is used in the text, and do persons that are quoted use 警護 when addressing others as they would in Japanese society? If so, which people use what kind of language, generally speaking?

There are a number of constructs, including 敬語, in the bible that are not present in everyday Japanese.

I'm Russian Orthodox, and the translation of the Bible used in the RO church in Japan is deliberately antiquated -- it was translated in the Meiji period, and was intentionally translated in a way meant to evoke archaic (often) religious texts the Japanese would already be familiar with. The idea was that such a translation would "ring familiar" and be clear as to its importance and gravity thereby.

the bible (in japanese) that i use is as Tony mentioned. the same as using the king james bible in English. Unfortunately alot has been lost in the translations anyways, I don't need some New translation to water it down anymore.. lol

I don't remember the kanji for all the words, but ware and nanji are used quite frequently when referring to self and others.

There has lately been a lot of debate in the Orthochurch over translation of liturgical and scriptural texts into English. There are many people (mostly the older folks and traditionalists) who want to use a "King James" flavor (thou, ye, etc.) and the younger, less educated (ahem) folks who want to keep it simple ("you" period).

Many of our texts are vocative, and so have recurring "Thou, who art..." -- naturally, the people who favor the modern lingo are rather dismissively referred to by some as "yoohoos" -- as the texts become "you who are".

yes there has been alot of debate worldwide as to whether King james had an agenda when he assembled his transcriptioners. However, for what it's worth, If they couldn't agree on a word, the italicized it and put the best word forth at least that they could do.

the debate usually arises when "other" books are mentioned as more important scripture and "lost scripture" as well. In these cases, it is hard to fault the translators etc as they never even knew about some of the stuff found in modern times

Is the Japanese bible translated directly from the Greek and Hebrew or is it translated from English?

I like KJV because it is a word-for-word translation. It gets cumbersome and annoying sometimes. But when understanding of a passage is dependent on a word with multiple meanings, I can grab a concordance and find which word was used in the Greek or Hebrew read the definition(s) and decide for myself if only one meaning was intended or if all were. Other versions are not word-for-word so a concordance isn't as useful for tying an English word to the Greek/Hebrew. KJV is basically the best bible to seek technical understanding of the original, short of learning to read/write Hebrew and Greek.

Which is why I wonder if the Japanese bible is a translation of English, so it has double translation errors, or is a direct translation.

Last edited by Infidel on Tue 01.30.2007 6:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Infidel wrote:Is the Japanese bible translated directly from the Greek and Hebrew or is it translated from English? ....... I wonder if the Japanese bible is a translation of English, so it has double translation errors, or is a direct translation.

Are we talking old or new testament? Some of the books of the old testament were originally written in Aramaic.

With the new testament it amazes me how so many of Jesus's apostles were so fluent in Koine Greek

I wouldn't worry to much about translation errors.

Don't complain to me that people kick you when you're down. It's your own fault for lying there